


We Simply Are

by Subtly Spectre (fishstic)



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Mikah doesn't like being referred to as Female but i have to work with what i'm given for tags, agender shepard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 07:49:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10239404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishstic/pseuds/Subtly%20Spectre
Summary: There's two things Mikah Shepard hates: Not knowing who they're working with, and being called a 'girl'. One of those things they can fix with a simple conversation with Liara, the other is a bit harder to manage as everyone thinks that they're a woman and the past has taught them that telling them they're wrong is not a thing people react lightly to.





	

**Author's Note:**

> it's not been beta'd and I'm incredibly tired, but I've been playing Mass Effect (with the intention of actually completing it for the first time) lately and I thought about my Shepard, then a conversation they might have with Liara came into my mind and it wouldn't leave, now we have a fic.

“I don’t know, Commander. It just seems like a bad idea to me,” Ashley said as she poked a fork at the food on her plate. “You don’t even know her.”

“That’s exactly why I’m going to talk to her,” Mikah replied. “Relax, Williams, it’s not like I’m going to tell her any Alliance secrets or anything like that. I just think that I should get to know Liara better. Her knowledge of the Protheans could prove to be invaluable.”

Ashley sighed slightly. “She could be a spy.”

Mikah shook their head. “I doubt Saren would try to kill one of his own agents just to get us to trust her. That doesn’t seem to be his style. He seems more the ‘I’m better than you because yes and you will do what I say because yes’ kind of person.”

“Should I be concerned that I understood that?” Ashley replied with a slight chuckle.

“Only if you disagree,” Mikah replied. “Even if she is a spy, which I don’t think she is, having a simple conversation about Asari in general won’t do any harm.”

“If you want to learn about the aliens, why not just look it up?” Ashley asked. “That’s a lot less likely to put you in direct contact with a possible spy.”

“It’s also a lot more likely to end up in locating porn. I don’t want to find porn, especially while I’m working.”

“Fair point. I still don’t feel right about this Commander, but it is your call to make, not mine.” Ashley poked at her food some more then looked up and said, “Why did you bring this up with me, specifically?”

“ _Because you’re the least likely member of the crew to insinuate that I might have a crush on her_ ,” Mikah wanted to say, but stopped themself and said instead, “Because I trust you.”

Ashley nodded. For a moment, she didn’t reply, but when she did she just said, “You might want to avoid talking about the Asari you’ve met before, the ones on the Citadel. They’re probably not the bet representatives of their species.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Williams. Do you have any idea where Liara might be now?”

“Last I heard she was with Dr. Chakwas,” Ashley replied, motioning the fork at the door to the medical bay. “You could check there.”

Mikah nodded and stood up, picking up the notebook that was sitting on the table as they did so. “Anything else you’d like to say before I go?” they asked, not really sure they’d want to hear it.

“Let me know when you finally get her to kiss you,” Ashley replied.

“Of course,” Mikah said, then tripped over their chair as they turned around to leave. “Wait what?”

“That is what you really want, isn’t it Commander?” Ashley asked as she came around the table to help Mikah stand up again.

“Well I—uhhh…” Mikah turned away quickly, blushing.

Ashley laughed slightly. “Crush-at-first-sight,” she said. “One of your previous commanding officers noted that in your file. You have a thing for nerds.”

“I am positive he did not say it like that,” Mikah said. “’Educated individuals’ is what he always called them.”

“Nerds,” Ashley laughed. “Just like you.”

“If I’m a nerd, what does that make you?”

Ashley narrowed her eyes for a moment. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Mikah chuckled slightly then turned back for a moment. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely positive,” Ashley replied indignantly.

“Whatever you say, Williams,” Mikah said. “But I’m aware that you’re the one who asked the quartermaster to locate a shop that sells model ships.”

“Well someone has to get you a new model for your birthday, and it won’t be the aliens. They don’t know that about you yet,” Ashley replied as though that were the most obvious thing in the universe.

“Nerd. Only a nerd would buy me a gift.”

“Oh, really? Then maybe I shouldn’t buy you one,” Ashley joked.

Mikah fake pouted while Ashley just laughed. “Go on then, Commander. If you’re sure I can’t talk you out of it, there’s a nerd probably dying for a chance to talk to you.”

Mikah smiled then as they walked away said, “Whoever you’ve got the bet with had better actually be prepared to lose.”

Ashley nodded and chuckled slightly. “I’m sure they are, Commander.”

Mikah didn’t bother trying to figure out who the bet was with as they headed off to the medbay. They were sure they’d figure it out eventually. As they walked into the medbay, Dr. Chakwas caught their attention.

“Can I help you with something, Commander? Have you finally tired of simply complaining about that problem with your teeth and will finally let me pull it out?”

Mikah shook their head slightly. “I’m sure that my wisdom tooth will be fine for another few days. It’s been fine with nothing but a few pain killers for years. I was actually hoping you could tell me where Dr. T’Soni went.”

“You are the most stubborn person I have _ever_ met,” Dr. Chakwas said. “She’s in there.” She pointed at the storage room connected to the medbay. “Said she wanted to use the extranet and there’s a terminal in there connected to it. I can’t see any harm to it, everything that goes through that terminal is monitored… I think.”

Mikah smiled. “I’m sure you’ve met more stubborn people than I, after all you’ve met the Captain Anderson,” they said as they headed back to the storage room.

Dr. Chakwas just shook her head and turned back to working on whatever she was doing as Shepard walked by.

For a moment, Mikah hesitated before approaching the door to the storage room. They didn’t want Liara to think they didn’t trust her, or seem rude or anything by not properly announcing their presence but it was a door that automatically opened when someone got near it. They took a breath, then stepped forward.

“Dr. T’Soni, may I come in?” they asked as the door opened itself.

“Of course, Shepard,” Liara said after looking to see who was there.

Mikah smiled slightly and walked in.  “Dr. T’Soni—“

“Please, just call me Liara,” Liara said with a smile, starting to stand up.

“No need to stand, Liara,” Mika said walking over and sitting on the stack of crates beside the table Liara was sitting at. “I was just thinking, you and I will be working together for a while. Rather closely, I might imagine, if either of us are ever going to completely understand the visions that the beacon placed in my head. It might be nice if we know more about each other.”

“What kind of things are you wanting to know?” Liara asked. “There’s plenty of things I want to know about you. You’re rather fascinating, a living specimen with real knowledge of the Protheans and what happened to them. I’d love if I could look inside you and learn what you know.”

“That makes it sound kind of like you want to dissect me in a lab,” Mikah pointed out humorously.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—I only meant to say that I think you’re fascinating and I’d love to study you… that didn’t sound better, maybe I should just stop—“

“It’s okay, Liara,” Mikah said quickly. “You didn’t offend me or insult me or anything. I didn’t mean to worry you with that joke. I’d like if maybe we could start simpler. Maybe you could tell me a little about the Asari? I don’t believe for a moment that Asari are all… uhh… well… like…” they were fumbling and rather badly, probably blushing too. _Shit. Liara must think I’m—_

“Not all Asari are like the ones you probably saw on the Citadel, council excluded of course, no,” Liara said. “We’re a proud and diverse race, though I must say I’ve never seen a people as physically diverse as humanity before.”

Mikah nodded. “Yeah, Humans do have a lot of different physical traits.”

Liara nodded too. “Do all Humans share your crew’s strange fascination with gender?”

Mikah bit their lip and didn’t reply at first, wondering where Liara was going with that. After a moment, they did reply, “Do Asari not have that same fascination?”

Liara shook her head. “Asari do not _have_ gender as Humans understand the term. We are neither ‘male’ nor ‘female’. We simply are.”

Mikah’s face lit up for a moment and they smiled.

“Did I say something wrong?” Liara asked quickly.

Mikah shook their head. “No. You… you just said something I’ve been trying to put into words for years. You simply are. Just as I simply _am_.”

Liara opened her mouth to reply for a moment then paused and closed it again. Mikah looked down, afraid that this reaction meant that Liara didn’t think Humans were capable of not having a gender, god knows most Humans felt that way. They looked up again when Liara put a hand gently on their arm and said, “Thank you for trusting me with that, Shepard. If it’s not rude of me to ask, what do you want me to call you?”

Mikah considered that for a moment then said, “Shepard is fine, but more personally, ignore what my file says. My name is Mikah.” There was a brief pause while they considered more things then asked, “How do the Asari refer to each other? Do they, you, have a pronoun that doesn’t imply a gender?”

“Not that the translators understand,” Liara replied. “Our pronoun is translated as feminine, we thought it would make things easier for languages, species, and cultures that don’t have a genderless pronoun.”

“I see,” Mikah said.

“If you’d like, we could find someone to reprogram your translator so that the pronoun translates as appropriately gender-neutral,” Liara said. “Does it bother you when your crew refer to you in feminine terms?”

“Yes, but I don’t blame them,” Mikah said. They’re just going by what’s in my file and what they’ve been told. Both of those say I’m a woman. It could be worse.” Absentmindedly, they brought a hand up to the scar across their nose and cheeks as though it hurt from some old memory that they were barely remembering. “At least to my face most of them just call me ‘Shepard’ or ‘Commander’. I don’t have much to worry about with the Normady Crew. It’s _other people_ that pose a problem, but I can’t do anything about them. It’s not like I could just wear a sign that says ‘not a woman’ all the time. What about you, though? Does it bother you to be referred to as female when you’re not?”

Liara shrugged slightly, but the look on her face was sympathetic. “Perhaps at some point it did, but after so many years, it no longer does.”

“So many years? How old are you?” Mikah asked then continued, unsure of if they were just digging themselves into an ‘I don’t know what I’m talking about’ corner, “I mean… how long do Asari live?”

“Asari can live for over 1000 years,” Liara said. “And go through three main stages of life: maiden, matron, and matriarch. Do you want to hear about those right now?”

Mikah started to nod again but as they did so a wave of dizziness passed over them. _Maybe I shouldn’t have skipped breakfast, and should have actually eaten lunch with Ashley?_

“Are you alright, Shepard?” Liara asked, voice betraying her concern as though she thought there might be something extremely wrong.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Mikah said. “Just a little dizzy, that’s all. I’d love to hear about the stages of Asari life, maybe over lunch?”

Liara smiled slightly. “That would probably be a good idea,” she said. “I am a little hungry.”


End file.
